English Civil War

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned... the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England and Wales. It had a land border with the Kingdom of Scotland to the north. At the start of the period its capital and chief royal residence was Winchester, but Westminster and Gloucester were accorded almost equal status, with Westminster gradually gaining preference. England as a state began on 12 July 927 after a gathering of kings from throughout Britain at Eamont Bridge, Cumbria, but broadly traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain and the Heptarchy of petty states that followed and ultimately united. The Norman invasion of Wales from 1067–1283 put Wales in England's control, and Wales came under English law with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542.
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The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651... after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch. The English Civil War has become the best-known of these conflicts and included the execution of the Three Kingdoms' monarch, Charles I, by the English parliament in 1649. The term, Wars of the Three Kingdoms, is often extended to include the uprisings and conflicts that continued through the 1650s until The English Restoration of the monarchy with Charles II, in 1660 , and sometimes until Venner's Uprising the following year. The wars were the outcome of tensions between king and subjects over religious and civil issues. Religious disputes centred on whether religion was to be dictated by the monarch or the choice of the subject, the subjects often feeling that they ought to have a direct relationship with God unmediated by any monarch or human intermediary.
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The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and... political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the Third English Civil War . The end of the First Civil War, in 1646, left a partial power vacuum in which any combination of the three English factions, Royalists, Independents of the New Model Army , and Presbyterians of the English Parliament, as well as the Scottish Parliament allied with the Scottish Presbyterians , could prove strong enough to dominate the rest. Armed political Royalism was at an end, but despite being a prisoner, King Charles I was considered by himself and his opponents as necessary to ensure the success of whichever group could come to terms with him. Thus he passed successively into the hands of the Scots, the Parliament and the Army. The King attempted to reverse the verdict of arms by coquetting with each in turn.
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The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil Wars , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians... and Royalists. The Preston campaign of the Second Civil War was undertaken under the direction of the Scots Parliament, not the Kirk, and it took the execution of King Charles I to bring about a union of all Scottish parties against the English Independents. Even so, Charles II in exile had to submit to long negotiations and hard conditions before he was allowed to put himself at the head of the Scottish armies. The Marquess of Huntly was executed for taking up arms for the king on 22 March 1649. The Marquess of Montrose, under the direction of Charles II, made a last attempt to rally the Scottish Royalists early in 1650. But Charles II merely used Montrose as a threat to obtain better conditions for himself from the Covenanters. When Montrose was defeated at the Battle of Carbisdale on 27 April, delivered up to his pursuers on 4 May, and executed on 21 May 1650, Charles II gave way to the demands of the Covenanters and placed himself at their head.
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The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the... Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. At the beginning of 1645, most of King Charles's advisers urged him to attack the New Model Army while it was still forming. However, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who had recently been appointed General of the Army and therefore the King's chief military adviser, proposed instead to march north to recover the North of England and join forces with the Royalists in Scotland under Montrose. This course was adopted, even though the King's army had to be weakened by leaving a detachment under Lord Goring, the Lieutenant General of Horse, to hold the West Country and maintain the Siege of Taunton, in Somerset. At the same time, after the New Model Army had abandoned an attempt to relieve Taunton, Parliament's Committee of Both Kingdoms had directed Fairfax, its commander, to besiege Oxford, the King's wartime capital. Initially, Charles welcomed this move, as Fairfax would be unable to interfere with his move north.
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The Battle of Aldbourne Chase, in 1643, was a battle of the First English Civil War, in which a fleeing column of Royalist troops, led by Prince... Rupert, attacked the dangerously extended Parliamentarian troops of Essex's army at Aldbourne Chase in Wiltshire. The action that followed was inconclusive, but allowed the Royalists to get to Newbury ahead of the Parliamentarian army. After relieving the siege of Gloucester, Essex needed to bring his army back to London, and the Royalists saw an opportunity to stop him. Essex marched north on 10 September to Tewkesbury to feint an attack on Worcester. However, the Royalist army blocked his path at Pershore, and Essex decided on the southern path back to London through Swindon, Newbury and Reading. On 15 September, the Parliamentarian army turned south and scattered a Royalist garrison at Cirencester. The King's army, marching parallel to Essex, attempted to cut him off, and Rupert's cavalry rode ahead to intercept Essex. He met the army of Parliament on the 18th September at Aldbourne. Dawn on the 18th September brought wet weather. Rupert's cavalry found Essex's troops extended in line of March across Aldbourne Chase.
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